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Northwest Earthquake
"Nature itself is taking vengeance on the spirit of man." ---''Rhys Thomson, Commander-in-Chief of Cascadia'' The 2062 Northwest Earthquake, also known as the Great Washington Earthquake, was a 9.7 magnitude slipstream earthquake that struck the West Coast originating in the Cascadian Subduction Zone area on May 20, 11:36 AM PST. It was the most devastating earthquake in the history of North America, almost obliterating all infrastructure along the entire pacific seaboard, especially the northwest areas of Washington and British Columbia along the puget region. In the immediate aftermath almost every city was left isolated from outside supplies and the Puget metropolitan area had shattered into dozens of cut-off communities. Coastal urban centers such as Victoria and Seattle were struck very hard in the aftermath, suffering over 50% flooding and inducing mass diaspora across the coast. Most cities in the cascadian zone were put on indefinite martial law in the face of near total isolation from one another and the outside world, as highways, bridges, and public transportation was completely fractured. Loss of electricity, finite medical/construction supplies, food/water and gasoline were all rationed - and mostly reserved for the government. The neglect citizens faced led to a variety of social upheaval among the citizens, stemming from the perception that the provisional government horded resources for its own benefit. The Starving Winter As the year approached winter, the situation drastically worsened. Most food/medicine and electrical reserves were reserved for the barracks of soldiers while citizens lived off of halved and spoiling rations, apartment blocks often resorting to community-run soup kitchens. In the faces of protests the provisional government severed certain areas' electricity, water, or plumbing, which was worsening as protests also grew in number and frequency the closer it approached to Christmas. Smuggler systems grew underground, collaborating with anti-initiative farmers to bring food to these 'punished' city blocks. Sickness lingered in the isolated communities and often killed a few dozens of people due to lack of access to medications; fueling the anger at the government. Protests grew in confrontations and metropolitan police units often clashed with the protestors. Multiple people were hurt and in some cases died in the fighting; some streets blockaded themselves and set fires. MPP units were mauled by crowds and tactics escalated on both sides of the fighting. From October to November 27 deaths and innumerable amounts of wounded accumulated. It was a virtual state of state-versus-people as metropolitan police and protestors fought daily and the provisional government took measures to weaken the civilians; entire city blocks went without power or access to water. Apartment raids became daily, and "extrajudicial" executions and arrests were made; only serving to fuel the fire. Militias began to form among civilians who aided in the protests and ran the underground supply routes in and out of cities. Fighting and fires continued near-daily until the Olympian Massacre on December 12, when MP and peacekeeping forces shot at a crowd with live rounds and chlorine gas canisters; hundreds are killed in the altercation and hundreds more are heavily injured. The immediate reaction afterward is open urban warfare between the various citizen-militias and GPI forces in the city, turning it into a warzone. News of the massacre spreads by word, along with video recordings despite the Initiative's best efforts to censor and cover up the incident; a domino effect initiated and the entire Washington area is uproared with riots and uprisings, spreading as far down as Redding and up to Vancouver.